The North Lakes Office Fitout is a transformational project that creates an inspiring interior within an uninspiring building envelope. The designers expertly manipulated volume to create varying workplace settings and experiences, creatively overcoming restrictions relating to building enclosure, budget and the surrounding industrial estate. The project signals unprecedented possibilities for workplace interior design, regardless of constraints. It reinvents tilt-slab construction and turns convention on its head.

Design statement

The North Lakes Office Fitout is an office for three tenants sharing one small warehouse in North Lakes, north of Brisbane. The warehouse itself is part of a generic industrial development and is essentially a 10 metre × 10 metre tilt-slab box standing seven metres high, with west-facing openings. The project quickly became an exercise in harnessing and manipulating daylight. The plan and section of the project hinge around three polycarbonate light wells that operate between the two levels, bringing daylight deep into the building. The aim was to create an office space that could operate with passive cooling and minimal artificial light for the majority of the year. These light wells define the various zones of the tenancy and create key moments of separation and convergence for the three tenants and their staff.

The office was designed and built within tight budget constraints and aims to challenge traditional notions of commercial office space in terms of environmental factors, materiality and enclosure.